Shop Local, Save the World!
The holidays are upon us, dear readers! Whatever your faith, whatever your traditions, I hope your homes are filled with light, love, and warmth in these dark winter months.
Some of our traditions around this time of year involve gift-giving. After two upending years battling a novel virus, our holidays undeniably look very different. We’re all learning in real time how complex the global supply chain truly is, and it’s worth taking a moment to appreciate how high our relative standard of living is compared to all of humanity who came before us.
Even kings and queens in the 1800s didn’t have the luxuries we every-day folk enjoy today and often take for granted: clean, reliable drinking water, hot water from a tap on-demand, fruits and vegetables from distant farmlands available in any season, etc. Most of us possess communication devices that use satellites in space to make any whim or desire we might have quite tangible and real. With a click of a button on a smart phone, you can activate an entire global supply system and get a good (or service!) delivered directly to your door. This year, however, labor and material shortages in other countries are influencing our shopping options and habits.
We often don’t think about the energy required to manufacture, package, and ship each one of the gifts we can purchase with a simple tap of the finger, but the energy costs are great and steep. Consumption was made cheap through fossil fuel subsidies and easy due to technological advancements.
Everything than cannot be grown or harvested must be mined. Metals, rare earth elements, common elements: all of it must be dug out of the ground, usually by fossil-fuel powered heavy machinery. Each one of those pieces of equipment must be controlled and operated by a human. All of those materials must be transported to a processing center to make raw materials into refined, workable materials. Industrial processing includes chemical, physical, electrical, and mechanical alteration, and this requires tremendous amounts of energy (again, usually sourced from fossil fuels) dedicated to furnaces, smelting, molding, and distillation, to give just a few examples. Once the good is manufactured, it must be transported to its final destination.
Maybe this year is the best possible year to shop locally and directly support our friend- and neighbor-owned businesses. There are so many fantastic options for gifts just up and down Main Street in Weaverville, and I know lots of long-time residents can think of other hidden gems of businesses throughout the county.
Books, gear, clothing, tools, keepsakes, jewelry, auto parts, food items, pottery, artwork, the list goes on and on and all of it is right here nestled in our beautiful mountains. No need for shipping. No wait lists. Just money in exchange for goods, money placed directly into the hands of our business-owning friends and neighbors. There are also options to gift experiences, like dance lessons, yoga sessions, hair and beauty gift certificates. Maybe you could offer to pay for an oil change or new set of tires. If you’re on a tight budget, gift certificates can be purchased in many instances. If you can’t spare money at the moment, you can always offer your time. I’m very confident that there is a gift for everyone. If you have additional ideas, write in and share them!
I’m very grateful and consider myself extraordinarily blessed to live in this community. It’s been a rough journey the last few years and we’re all weary, worn-out, and wondering when the chaos will subside and normalcy will return. I think keeping our dollars local this year and helping our own county’s economy survive will be a good step toward bolstering our recovery. Everything we need, we have right here. And most of everything we want is also right here, waiting for us to find it.
Thank you for reading. I wish you peace, calm, and comfort this holiday season and beyond.
